Yup, the little boy on this billboard above is me. That was the olden days, when no one had a cell phone, radio ads ruled and my grandfather, Monte Kobey, introduced the world of “swap” to San Diego. I was recruited early to work at Kobey\u2019s Swap Meet and began pounding the asphalt a couple years ago, just as my grandfather had. It was a natural fit for me to take on social media initiatives, but not such a natural fit for a relatively low-tech business like a swap meet. Beginning late last year, I helped launch Kobey\u2019s accounts on various networks, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We\u2019ve become big supporters and users of social media, and highly recommend that even the most offline business can find great returns for similar investments. Here are several tactics we\u2019ve implemented to grow our social presence that we believe other organizations can use. \u2022 Be practical:<\/b> It\u2019s hard not to think of social media and immediately imagine the bells and whistles of engagement including cool graphics and fun contests, but don\u2019t forget why people come to your Facebook\/Twitter page. For example, most of our Facebook fans want to know if the swap meet is open in the rain and what bargains to watch for that day. \u2022 Facebook ads:<\/b> On average, Kobey\u2019s attracts about 50 new Facebook fans per week and many of them are a result of Facebook ads. Not only are they inexpensive, but extremely easy to set up in a matter of minutes. Great bang for few bucks. \u2022 Incentivize the “like:”<\/b> When a non-fan visits Kobey\u2019s Facebook account they arrive on a page that encourages them to “like us” for monthly coupons or event invites. If you want to create something similar, there are helpful “How to” instructional videos on YouTube if you search “Facebook landing page.” \u2022 Incorporate video:<\/b> I\u2019ve become the Kobey\u2019s version of “Bob Barker” in a series of videos about the swap meet for a “Kobey\u2019s TV” channel we set up on YouTube. We post the spots on Facebook and tweet them. The swap meet is a visual place and the response rate is very high when using a tool as powerful as video. \u2022 Say “thank you:”<\/b> We recently hosted a “social media fan appreciation day” at the swap meet. All of our Facebook friends, Twitter followers and Foursquare mayors\/badge holders received free admission, Kobey\u2019s concessions, gifts such as vintage water bottles, in addition to raffle prizes. The event was also a great opportunity to gain new fans\/followers. We signed up more people in one day than we would in a couple of weeks. Success! I think our journey into social media is a bit unexpected, but hopefully serves as a great example for other businesses that don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible or of value. Since November, we\u2019ve nearly doubled our Facebook fans and Twitter followers. As a result, we\u2019re now averaging 20,000 shoppers each weekend. We\u2019ve been in San Diego for more than three decades, but that doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re using the same techniques. My grandfather LOVED advertising and my mom tells me how proud he would be of the way I\u2019ve helped the company evolve in this digital age. I\u2019m all grown up now and so is Kobey\u2019s Swap Meet. \u2014 Anthony Pretto is the assistant manager and director of social media for Kobey\u2019s Swap Meet, a San Diego-based bargain-hunters\u2019 goldmine for 30 years, drawing more than 1,000 sellers and 30,000 shoppers weekly. He can be reached at apretto@kobeys.com.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yup, the little boy on this billboard above is me. That was the olden days, when no one had a cell phone, radio ads ruled and my grandfather, Monte Kobey, introduced the world of “swap” to San Diego. I was recruited early to work at Kobey\u2019s Swap Meet and began pounding the asphalt a couple […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":280225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Kobey\u2019s Swap Meet has gone digital: why that matters to your business","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11552,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}